ORIENTALS IN CANADA.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17452, 12 May 1922, Page 11

ORIENTALS IN CANADA.

A WHITE B.C. ?

(rnoil OTJB OWN CORRESPONDENT')

VANCOUVER, April 13. I British Columbia demands immediate and effective legislation to curb Asiatic | immigration, and the representatives of the Western Provnce are making their voices heard in Ottawa m no uncertain manner for the Diovinee itseii have proved abortive. , Its enactments to prevent Abiatic iaboux | on Government contracts liate been de dared ultra vires by the Pnvy Counal in London. Its powers to restiict pro uerty rights or to contravene international treaties have teen difcuppoui ing to the province, and now even the Progressives irom that area have joined with the older parties in demanding relief iroin Parliament. . . . Parliament's anxiety to delve into international problems, or into problems which may arouse international complications. is second only to the anxiety to maintain peace and progress at home. The question of how tar it can go in meeting British Columbia fi demands have not been determined, but British Columbia is determined, and the issue will crave in increasing degree the thought of Canadian public men Alfred Stork, the Liberal member for Skeena, British Columbia, in introducing the subject in Parliament, said ma constituencv was larger than England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, and Belgium combined. When British Columbia entered Confederation in 1871, he said, there was nothing in the agreement to indicate that the province was to support _ a large Oriental population. "British Columbia," said Mr Stork, "does hot wish to be a sacrifice on the altar of international goodwill." Orientals cpji-

trolled the fish industry, and truck farming of British Columbia was similarly monopolised by the Asiatics. The Orientals were making heavy inroadsinto the timber industry, and controlled 30 per cent, of the manufacturing of the province. The Oriental birth-rate _ was four times as great as the white birthrate. Returned soldiers were idle while Orientals wore carrying on the work of the country, and he advised members of Parliament to travel in their own country in order more fully to appreciate actual conditions.

Oriental Invasion. 1 Another contribution on the subject t was given by Thomas G. Mcßride, the Progressive member for Cariboo division in British Columbia, and he warned tho House of the increasing dangers from Oriental invasion of British Columbia. "They will' not adopt our standards of living," .he explained. "They cannot be assimilated, and they lowor our labour conditions. In 1910 there were 20 Japanese 'bubioß born iu British Columbia and in IS2O this increased to 657. Last year tho natural increase among tho whites was 17 pop 1000 and among the Japs 69 per 1000. That is bad enough without ' letting more in." . A school inspector reported that Oriental attendanoe at schools with white boys and girls must be stopped. Orientals were receiving their education at the expense of the British. Columbia taxpayers. In Vancouver it cost 60,000 dollars to educate Orientals last year. The influx of Japanese and Chinese tended to lower the moral and labouring standards of tho communities. It I was a situation that must bo ended at ' onoe. Canada must become a country of homes, but this could not bo attained while Oriental labour was competing with white labour. "We think about Orientals now. What will you think about them in twenty-five years? asked Mr Mcßride. _ . _ „ In Vancouver the situation is daily becoming mora alarming through the spread of Oriental labour and the shutting out of hundreds of white workers through undercutting by Asiatics in a variety of callings. Nearly every vegetable and fruit peddler in the city is a Chinaman, who with a horse and waggon peregrinates through th« street offering his stuff at prices which are impossible to a whit© .man, whoso standard of living makes it folly to sell at the sleek Oriental's price. Some of these Chinese peddlers own high-priced auto trucks from _ which they deliver their produce, which not only includes fruit, but immense stocks of onions, potatoes, and all manner of root crops. Tho Chinese ha-ve also launched into the hay and straw business a3 well as poultry and egg selling on an extensive scale. In tho grocer}' business they are flourishing and directly a grocery shop : becomes vacated tho owner is bom- : barded with offers of high rent from ; some Oriental, who is usually financed 'by a Chinese association. The cunning Oriental frequently resorts to changing his name on tho store trout to some distinctly English cognomen, such as \V. King and Co. In Ms shop he keeps well in the background when prriipt':tivo customers are viewing his ware* from the outside, and when the customer roaches tho inside ho is astonished to disc-over that the proprietor of the establishment is a crafty Chinaman surounded by his lean-looking assistants. The Chinese generally create a corner in onions and potatoes ©very year, thereby boosting prices to consumers. „ , _ . J , As might be expected, the Orientals are not very popular in British Columbia, but Easterners never appear to interest themselves ia the serious menace which daily grows worse in the "Western province, and closely resembling the perplexing problem in California where Orientals have overrun the fruit and other industries, to the almost total exclusion of white labour.